JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, February 16, 2025

In­dra Per­sad Milowe ex­plores Jharokha

Celebration—artwork inspired by Indian architecture

by

49 days ago
20241227

T&T-born In­dra Per­sad Milowe, an in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed artist, has chan­nelled her cre­ative en­er­gy in­to Jharokha, art­work com­mon­ly fea­tured in clas­si­cal In­di­an ar­chi­tec­ture that is dis­played in ac­tu­al or dec­o­ra­tive win­dows.

Her piece ti­tled “Cel­e­bra­tion” re­flects jharokha’s cur­rent use of be­ing ar­tis­ti­cal­ly adorned for var­i­ous cel­e­bra­tions, hol­i­days and fes­ti­vals. The art­work is needle­work on burlap, us­ing mul­ti­coloured thread and it is adorned with bells and as­sort­ed mir­rors.

Milowe ex­plained, “A Jharokha is sup­port­ed on two or more brack­ets and has two pil­lars and a cupo­la or pyra­mi­dal roof. It is closed by a jali (per­fo­rat­ed screen) but gen­er­al­ly part­ly open for the res­i­dents to peep out to see pass­ing pro­ces­sions.

“Jharokha dar­shan was a dai­ly prac­tice of ad­dress­ing the pub­lic au­di­ence (dar­shan) at the bal­cony Jharokha at the forts and palaces of me­dieval kings in In­dia. It was an es­sen­tial and di­rect way of com­mu­ni­cat­ing face-to-face with the pub­lic and was a prac­tice which was adopt­ed by the Mughal em­per­ors. Em­per­or Hu­mayun adopt­ed this Hin­du prac­tice of ap­pear­ing be­fore his sub­jects at the Jharokha to hear their pub­lic griev­ances. The bal­cony ap­pear­ance in the name of Jharokha dar­shan was con­tin­ued by his son, the 16th-cen­tu­ry Mughal Em­per­or Ak­bar.”

Jharokhas have since been trans­formed in­to in­te­ri­or dec­o­ra­tive win­dows that adorn the walls of many homes. Gen­er­al­ly made of wood, they can fea­ture elab­o­rate artis­tic carv­ings and come in dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes.

“Jharokhas can be adorned with mir­rors, can­dles or diyas, pho­tographs or oth­er art­work. They act as frames to en­hance the beau­ty of homes or oth­er build­ings,” she not­ed.

Milowe, who is ac­cred­it­ed by the UN­OFEX (Union of Ex­cel­lence), has a pas­sion for art that has de­fined her path and cap­ti­vat­ed au­di­ences glob­al­ly. Her work re­flects her rich cul­tur­al her­itage and the vi­brant sto­ries of T&T.

Her artis­tic jour­ney be­gan in her youth, nur­tured by the en­cour­age­ment of her high school art teacher, Hel­ga Mo­hammed, a na­tive of Madrid mar­ried to a Trinida­di­an, who left an in­deli­ble mark on Milowe’s artis­tic per­spec­tive.

De­spite her pas­sion for art, Milowe’s ca­reer took a dif­fer­ent path. She pur­sued nurs­ing, a pro­fes­sion that took her across con­ti­nents to work in Eng­land, Mal­ta, and the Unit­ed States, gain­ing di­verse ex­pe­ri­ences through British Nurs­es Over­seas. Her ded­i­ca­tion to nurs­ing spanned gen­er­al, oph­thalmic, and psy­chi­atric spe­cial­i­ties, with a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of her ca­reer de­vot­ed to adult psy­chi­atric med­i­cine.

In April 2019, af­ter decades of ser­vice in the med­ical field, Milowe re­tired and em­braced her life­long dream of re­turn­ing to art.

Milowe’s art­work is deeply per­son­al, each piece telling a sto­ry from her life or the folk­lore of T&T. She metic­u­lous­ly plans her projects. With pen­cils and a sketch­pad al­ways at hand, she cap­tures these vi­sions, trans­lat­ing them in­to vi­brant acrylic paint­ings on can­vas.

Her work has gained in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion, lead­ing to nu­mer­ous ex­hi­bi­tions. Her trav­els have sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­flu­enced her art, as seen in her col­lec­tions like Beau­ti­ful Ubud, Bali and My Jour­ney to Mo­roc­co.

Her time as an artist-in-res­i­dence in Ubud, al­lowed her to im­merse her­self in lo­cal tra­di­tions, at­tend­ing fes­ti­vals and cer­e­monies that en­riched her artis­tic reper­toire.

In ad­di­tion to her ex­hi­bi­tions, Milowe’s con­tri­bu­tions to the Ro­tun­da Gallery in the Red House, Port-of-Spain, and Art Im­pact In­ter­na­tion­al in Wash­ing­ton, DC, show­case her com­mit­ment to shar­ing her cul­ture and sto­ries with the world. Her par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Sin­ga­pore In­ter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val of Arts (SIFA 2023) fur­ther high­light­ed her glob­al pres­ence.

Milowe’s re­cent res­i­den­cy at Mauser Eco House in Cos­ta Ri­ca cul­mi­nat­ed in the cre­ation of a 6x6-foot mur­al ti­tled Lutch­mie and the do­na­tion of a paint­ing to a lo­cal restau­rant. Her work in Salem, MA, where she paint­ed mu­rals and pub­lic art ex­hi­bi­tions, earned her recog­ni­tion and two grants from the Pub­lic Art Com­mis­sion.

Through her art, Milowe not on­ly tells her own sto­ry but al­so brings the vi­brant folk­lore and fes­ti­vals of T&T to life, con­nect­ing with au­di­ences world­wide.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored